Underneath Your Shell
by AngelicConquistador
Summary: Clouffie drabbleoneshot. It wasn't until he had realized that she was playing cards by herself that perhaps, maybe inside she's suffering too. Small bit of fluff. Rated for Cid's mouth.


**Rei**: I've been itching to write this… and I've been in a one-shot mood so nyeh. Characters (especially Cloud) may be a little OOC. Rated T for some swearing. Slightly pointless and a little fluffy.

**Dedicated to**- KujakuValentine (You rule!) and Clouffie lovers everywhere.

**Disclaimer**- I do not own FFVII… If I did… I'd either have paired Yuffie up with Cloud or Sephiroth, and a number of other things.

**Summary**: It wasn't until he had realized that she was playing cards by herself that perhaps hidden underneath her shell, she was suffering too. One-shot/drabble Clouffie Contains spoilers. May be kinda short too… Sorry .

* * *

**Underneath Your Shell- Drabble/One-shot**

"Speech"

'Thought'

_"Cid On the Intercom"_

Aboard the Highwind-

Normal POV

A loud tapping noise echoed through out the hallway of the Highwind as a man walked through. His golden hair like that of a chocobo, except it looked like someone played a mean trick on a chocobo's feathers with a chainsaw… (I like his hair, just so you know XD) His eyes were glowing a bright blue with the mako within them; although they looked… dare I say it… clouded? (No pun intended.) His brows were furrowed in deep thought, as he looked for his little ninja: Yuffie.

That troublesome girl had disappeared, no doubt probably using the Highwind as a barf bag again. That girl's motion sickness was so bad, it made his look tame. Well, sort of… Cloud sighed and rubbed his temples. He just wanted to go to sleep, forget Sephiroth, and then sleep some more (and make sure he was dead in his dreams, too). Oh god. If he keeps this up he'll end up sounding like Vincent, who had a nice little coffin instead of a bed back at the ShinRa Mansion. Next thing you know, there'll be a second one with a blonde vampire stuck in it. No claw and cape necessary, though…

He broke out of his now OOC thoughts when he heard something like, "GODDAMN YOU BERNICE!" shouted out from a room up ahead to his left. His eyebrows rose and then he realized that he had found her. He shuffled over there and then he looked in. What he saw dumbfounded him.

Yuffie was sitting at a table, with cards set out on the table. He scratched the back of his head in confusion and slight worry, she looked angry, almost to the point of tears. There were cards in front of the chair across from her, and from what he saw she had been playing Go Fish. And somehow… She lost?

He then decided to announce his presence. "Yuffie…" He started as he walked in.

The ninja's head snapped up and she looked almost pissed, but then her expression softened a little bit. "Hiya Spikes," she said quietly.

He decided to get straight to the point. "Are you okay?" 'What a great question to ask, Strife,' he thought. You'd think if she were all right she wouldn't be playing cards with an empty chair (unless it occurred in an extreme fit of boredom) and then losing (if that was possible) and starting to cry. 'Yep. I'm brilliant.'

She coughed, trying to clear her throat. "'Course… Just dandy." She refused to meet his eyes and instead looked down at her hands.

He frowned. This wasn't normally like their spunky, hyper, kleptomaniac kunoichi. If anything, she hadn't been herself since… she died. 'Maybe that's why…' He thought, and walked over to her.

Gently, he cupped her cheeks with both hands and raised her head. Now a small but yet bright red color colored her cheeks. However, she still refused to look at him. "Yuffie, look at me," he said. When she still didn't respond, he said, "Please."

She then finally looked at him, and her Asiatic gray-brown eyes looked into his own aquamarine ones. A tear had made its way from her eye to plop on his hand. He wiped the others away. When he was certain she wouldn't look away, he took his hands away, almost reluctantly. "Now, can you tell me why you were playing cards by yourself?"

Her eyes turned a darker brown-gray, and her lips trembled. So unlike Yuffie, but he had never seen her so upset before, except for when Aeris left them… 'Sephiroth, that bastard.'

"I couldn't help her Cloud… I was there, I was there with you, then all of a sudden HE showed up and skewered her like they (ShinRa) did to my mother during the war!" A sob erupted from her throat and she buried her head in her hands. (I didn't know how Yuffie's mother died so I made up a death… Okay?)

Cloud's own heart hurt at the mention of Aeris. It was still an unhealed wound, which was sure to hurt for a very long time. He knew that he wasn't alone, but he being himself shut himself away from everyone else, so it became a forbidden subject. At least now he understood why it had made the ninja cry so much, and have perhaps an emotional lapse in sanity for a few moments there. Her mother had died the same way as their own flower girl.

Soon he felt bad for making her bring it back up, and tried to comfort her in a way that he knew how. It was a way to cope, or at least get their minds off the memories for a little while. He settled for awkwardly giving her a hug, to which she hugged him back. He was surprised at this, but humbled a little. When she was done, she sniffed and drew back. She rubbed her eyes and muttered, "Thanks chocobo-head."

He nodded. "You're welcome…"

_"Hey Cloud! Get your fucking blonde ass up here! We need your fucking coordinates!"_

Cloud sighed. 'Cid can be so annoying when he wants to be. He swears too much…'

Yuffie quivered a bit. She really needed to get more tranquilizers. She had taken quite a lot in order to not hurl every last bit of the contents in her stomach, and she knew that if she weren't going to occupy herself with something, she would have to run to the bathroom or better yet, hurl AND raid the ship's supply of tranquilizers. She settled for pasting on her puppy dog eyes and then said in her 'cutest' voice, "Spikes?"

Cloud turned around and was greeted with the sight of Yuffie's puppy dog eyes and groaned. 'I never knew she had those… but damn, they work well!' "What Yuffie?"

"You wanna play Go Fish with me?" Again with those eyes! He felt himself submitting to her will. He sighed. "Fine."

She brightened predictably, but then her face turned into a predatory grin. "Hey Spikes… if I win, can I have all of your materia?" She said with an innocent, and child-like tone of voice.

It took him only millisecond to think about it. "No."

"Goddamn you Bernice!"

"…What the hell?"

She cackled insanely as the Highwind roared away with Cid's voice being drowned out by her maniacal laughter.

* * *

End of One-shot

**Rei**: I know that sucked… But I hoped you at least enjoyed it enough to press that button! Yes! You know you want to…

**The morale of the story**: None. Or maybe it could be that you shouldn't trust Ninjas to play Go Fish by themselves. Or MAYBE Cloud's new name is Bernice. Who knows? (The whole Bernice thing I got from Dodgeball XD)


End file.
